Does Prepaid Load Need to Expire?
August 30, 2009 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Mobile Monitor
Yesterday I came from an event with Globe Telecommunications, a local telco here in the Philippines. They launched a rebranded version of their “Tattoo” product line which essentially had two things to take away — a new community building facility and the ImmortalTXT feature which does not let your prepaid load expire.
Globe Tattoo gives you the new IMMORTALTXT, the first and only text offer with NO EXPIRY. For just P10, enjoy 50 texts to Globe/TM and 10 texts to other networks that will never expire*.
To register, simply text IMMORTAL10 to 8888. Also available to Globe Prepaid subscribers.
*Subject to SIM validity.
My question is, does prepaid load really need to expire? The economics behind leaving load to wilter has more to do in keeping the cashflow moving — as a telco, it is definitey a way to coerce subscribers to purchase more load, leaving them no quarter to save money. You can’t save money with load that will expire in 48 hours.
As someone who has always been doubtful of the “corporate ways” it seems that the option to go without expiry has always been there. Telcos just did not make use of it. ARGH.
[photo c/o Globe Tattoo site]
It’s bullcrap to have expiry dates on load that you paid for, the Phil economy is having a hard time and having load expire gives the people hard time also in coping up. This is corporate BS!!!
Why does my body needs to sleep? Whyyyyy
I was just complaining about that expiration thingy.. and why telcos have to impose them..it’s really unfair especially for those who are overseas who uses roaming sima.. since the load is not readily unavailable overseas.. you have to ask someone back home to load some for you.. which is a real hassle for me..
why is not open to TM subscribers?
is it good than unlitxt for globe subscribers?
it’s good that Globe Telecom launched this kind of promotion. aside from keeping your load for a long period of time, it also seems converting your ten pesos for 60 text messages… i’m proud that i’m a globe user and my loyalty strengthen on what they have done. This is big help for the nation who always find means to budget their everyday needs and necessities.and i think rich people in power and politics don’t mind “this promo” , and they would not even try participate. “Meron silang pera na hindi sa kanila na kaya nilang gastahin”. and let us pray thta this promo would not back fire on us for approving on taxing on text will be shouldered by the ordinary people like us. Thank you very much!
Yeah, I hear you…from a customer perspective it’s pretty lame. There is, however, a network carrying cost to have a account active on the network even when it’s not being used. While I can’t articulate the details specifically, there are systems costs to having an account open and available for network usage, phone number resources, etc. While not what you and I would consider high, it does add up. The fact is that if you’re using your phone even semi-regularly, you’ll never run into a problem, and even adding a small amount of money will extend the entire balance. There are also options for longer expiration dates up to 365 days.
In addition, it would be an accounting nightmare b/c customers who are no longer using their phones will never churn off, so the subscriber base would appear to never be losing customers, would continue to grow, and yet an increasing number of customers would basically never use their phone, which would result in a lower ARPU, and ultimately hit the company’s numbers so badly that the analysts would send the stock tumbling.
i hope this promo will last long..though globe will lose a lot of money..haha.. why? its bec consumers are not oblige to load up their phones every day.. unlike d unlimtd txting we are forced to use all the remaining credits even if we dont want to.. right?
dapat me ganyan… i like the globe and smart before all this text charging… before basta me load ka, free text na